The present invention generally relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and an information transmitting medium and, more particularly, to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and an information transmitting medium that are adapted to receive information from an information provider by use of personal information existing on a network with a relatively simple terminal device from any desired location.
With the recent popularization of the Internet, various pieces of information have come to be available. These pieces of information include the provision of a product purchase service and other various services.
For example, when accessing a predetermined service or information provider through the Internet to purchase a predetermined product through the home page of that service or information provider, a user must input personal information such as his or her name, age, address, telephone number, and credit card number to submit these pieces of information to the provider. When accessing two or more service or information providers to acquire plural products, the user must submit his or her personal information to each of these providers every time he or she places an order. Usually, the personal information to be submitted to these providers is substantially the same in content. Therefore, the user needs to input the same information repeatedly, a time-wasting and error-prone operation.
To overcome this inconvenience, OPS (Open Profiling Standard), for example, provides on the user""s personal computer, as application programs, a user profile recorded with the user""s personal information and a user agent for providing this user profile to service or information providers on behalf of the user as required. This system therefore frees the user from inputting the same personal information every time he or she accesses the service or information providers.
However, in this approach, each user must prepare the user agent as the application program on his or her own. Consequently, if a revision is made in a communication protocol or format used, the user must update the application program accordingly, thereby presenting a problem of increased user load.
In addition, a mobile terminal device for accessing information or service providers from outside the home is generally designed with emphasis placed on mobility and low cost and therefore is inferior in capability to a desktop computer. This often presents a problem of disabling the user to make access from the mobile terminal device to information or service providers in the same communication environment in which the access is made from the desktop computer.
This problem may be solved by providing a rewritable memory device to add or extend capabilities but at the cost of complicated device constitution.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and an information transmitting medium that allow a user to receive the provision of information in a simple and low-cost manner from any location always in the same communication environment.
In carrying out the invention and according to one aspect thereof, there is provided an information processing apparatus comprising: a storage means for storing personal information of a plurality of users; and a providing means for providing the personal information stored in the storage means to the information processing device of the information provider on behalf of the information processing device of the user when access to the personal information comes from the information processing device of the user and a request for the personal information comes from the information processing device of the information provider.
In carrying out the invention and according to another aspect thereof, there is provided an information processing method comprising the steps of: storing personal information of a plurality of users; and providing the personal information stored in the storage means to the information processing device of the information provider on behalf of the information processing device of the user when access to the personal information comes from the information processing device of the user and a request for the personal information comes from the information processing device of the information provider.
In carrying out the invention and according to still another aspect thereof, there is provided an information transmitting medium for transmitting a computer program comprising the steps of: storing personal information of a plurality of users; and providing the personal information stored in the storage means to the information processing device of the information provider on behalf of the information processing device of the user when access to the personal information comes from the information processing device of the user and a request for the personal information comes from the information processing device of the information provider.
In carrying out the invention and according to yet another aspect thereof, there is provided an information processing apparatus comprising: an access means for accessing the information processing device of the information provider through the server; and a control means for controlling the provision of the personal information stored in the storage means to the information processing device of the information provider by the server on behalf of any of the plurality of users when a request for the personal information comes from the information providing device of the information provider.
In carrying out the invention and according to a different aspect thereof, there is provided an information processing method comprising the steps of: accessing the information processing device of the information provider through the server; and controlling the provision of the personal information stored in the storage means to the information processing device of the information provider by the server on behalf of any of the plurality of users when a request for the personal information comes from the information providing device of the information provider.
In carrying out the invention and according to still different aspect thereof, there is provided a transmitting medium for transmitting a computer program comprising the steps of: accessing the information processing device of the information provider through the server; and controlling the provision of the personal information stored in the storage means to the information processing device of the information provider by the server on behalf of any of the plurality of users when a request for the personal information comes from the information providing device of the information provider.
In the information processing apparatus, the information processing method and the transmitting medium, personal information of a plurality of users is stored in the storage means and, when access to the personal information is made from the user and a request for the personal information comes from the information provider, the personal information is provided to the information provider on behalf of the user.
In the information processing apparatus, the information processing method and the transmitting medium, the server controls the provision of the personal information to the information provider when the server is accessed by the user and the information provider requests the server for the personal information.